[JoCo]

Anyone got any experience tuning a Fox Float X2 for a KS-Link bike?

I've got a 2018 Float X2 on my Spitfire, and the rear suspension is very sensitive and does great at plouging through stuff (the eyelet needle bearing probably helps too).

Having said that I'm struggling to tune the damper to get the pedaling performance where I'd like it. I'm already running quite a bit of LSC+LSR (and very little HSC+HSR) but the suspension still tends to bob around quite a bit, which makes the bike sluggish out of corners and on flatter sections.

I'm starting to think I've reached the limit of what can be accomplished with the external adjusters, so I wondering whether I should send the shock in for a tune. It's an aftermarket shock so in principle it's not tuned for the Spitfire's suspension in any way. The tune ID reveals the following info about the shock:


2018, FLOAT X2, F-S, K, 2pos-Adj, FOX, AM, 7.875, 2.25, 0.3 Spacer x2, CM, Orange Logo, N/M

That tells me it has a medium compression tune, but not a lot else useful about the damper tune that I can make sense of.

My understanding is that the X2 can be tuned to be more digressive, which sounds like it might help. Has anyone else done this? Or spoken to the guys at Banshee about works well with the KS-link design?

 

[JonJones]

I'm running a 2018 Factory X2 on my Prime and love it.
For reference I'm 95kgs.
Set sag at 14mm.

My settings are:
220psi
LSC 4 from open
HSC 4 from open

I can't recall my rebound settings and am 7 days I to recovering from shoulder surgery so it'll be a while before I get to the bike. I can't wrench it in any way.

No pedal bob or issues and raised like a dream.

 

[JoCo]

That's good to know!

Any chance you could check the four digit ID on your shock? I wonder if we have different tunes...

 

[JonJones]

Mine says DCHY..

Not sure if that is different to yours and how?

 

[JoCo]

Thanks!

That means we have the same shock with the same damper tune. So either the Prime linkage is different to the Spitfire in some way or we just have different riding style/set-up/etc. I only need about ~160psi in mine so that might partly explain our different experiences.

 

[builttoride]

What shock sag are you running (in mm)?

 

[JoCo]

I've settled on ~16mm (measured standing with a rearward weight bias). I'm running two volume spacers, and seem to use around 80-90% of the travel on a typical ride, only using 100% on larger drops, etc.

I rented a shockwiz for a week and tried a few different sag settings, but 16mm seems to work well. The shockwiz was showing a dynamic sag in the low 30s for most rides with 16mm of static sag.

 

[builttoride]

At 16mm of shock compression you are running 32% sag, which is a bit much for the spitfire. I suggest you drop down to 14-15mm of shock compression at sag to get 28-30% true sag, which will increase anti squat under pedaling and increase efficiency.

 

[JoCo]

I've upped the PSI for ~14mm sag. Let's see if I can get a better tune now.

Thanks!